In the football 7-a-side competition at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games, Russia defeated the Netherlands 12-1 but was recorded as 10-1 in the competition summary table and pool standings as a result of the implementation of the "10-goal rule".

The "10-goal rule" has been in full effect for the football 7-a-side competition at the Beijing Paralympics.

According to CPISRA (Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association) rule 19.3.4, "a maximum number of 10 goals scored will be allowed to be counted for goals scored in any single match."

The rule is applied in matches where a team scores more than 10 goals. In these cases, the actual goals scored will be reflected in the match result, while the maximum of 10 will be used for the competition summary table.

Like the case of the match between Russia and the Netherlands on Wednesday, the match result was 12-1, but in the competition summary table and pool standings, the result of 10-1 and a goal difference of 9 will be used for the pool and tournament standings calculation.

The spirit of rule is that of avoiding strong teams to qualify for the latter rounds of the tournament by virtue of goal-difference against a weaker team from the same pool.

(Xinhua News Agency September 10, 2008)